CFD Evaluation of Electrochemical Additively Manufactured Heat Sinks for Single-Phase Immersion Cooling

• Main Authors: Herring, Joseph, Lamotte-Dawaghreh, Jacob, Gupta, Gautam, Agonafer, Dereje, Madril, Joseph, Ouradnik, Tim, Matthews, Michael, Winfield, Ian
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Data Center Cooling; ECAM; Electric potential; Geometry; Heat Sink; Heat sinks; Immersion cooling; Lattices; Periodic structures; Reliability; Single Phase Immersion Cooling; Surface resistance; Three-dimensional printing
• ISSN: 2694-2135
• DOI: 10.1109/ITherm55375.2024.10709455

As the power-density of high-performance electronics continues to increase, the demand for efficient cooling solutions is critical to maintaining performance and reliability. Conventional thermal management equipment and strategies are steadily approaching the limits of their viability. To address this, research in academia and industry is assessing various emergent cooling technologies that allow for future growth and further scaling of electronics power-densities. Of these, single-phase immersion cooling (SPIC) enables a substantial performance leap while offering simplicity and reliability. Novel additive manufacturing (AM) technologies offer new fabrication methods that can revolutionize electronics heat sink design and manufacturing, by permitting complex geometries that were previously unattainable. In this study, heat sinks designed for electrochemical additive manufacturing (ECAM) with Body Centered Cubic (BCC) lattice structures are evaluated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) conjugate heat transfer (CHT) analyses in ANSYS Fluent for single-phase immersion cooling applications. More complex heat sink cooling surface geometries enabled by ECAM fabrication technologies have a greater surface area to volume ratio than traditional parallel plate fins. To benchmark performance, we establish a baseline immersion cooling heat sink metric for various dielectric fluid flowrates using a conventional finned heat sink. We then compare the thermal resistance and pressure drop characteristics of this baseline with those of the ECAM BCC lattice heat sink design. Additional design factors of wall thickness and porosity are also considered. This study evaluates the thermal performance of ECAM-fabricated BCC lattice heat sinks as an innovative solution for enhancing cooling efficiency in high power-density electronics immersion cooling applications. The findings are expected to offer valuable insights into the viability and performance advantages of such heat sinks. By leveraging the capabilities of AM designed structures, this research contributes to the development of more effective and sustainable immersion cooling solutions for next-generation electronic systems.